A merchant may provide an online e-commerce marketplace for the purchase of a variety of products by customers. The products might include physical products that are shipped directly to customers and/or digital products that customers download from the e-commerce marketplace. The merchant that operates the e-commerce marketplace and/or third-party sellers may make products available for sale on the marketplace. The third-party sellers may provide product information for the products they have for sale to a merchant system that provides the e-commerce marketplace. The product information is utilized to generate product listings for the products on the e-commerce marketplace.
The product information provided by sellers might include values for various attributes of a product, such as an identifier for a product, like a stock keeping unit (“SKU”) number; a title or description of the product; technical specifications for the product; the purchase price; product availability, such as whether the product is “in stock”; shipping parameters and costs; the geographic region in which the product is available to customers; the locale of the seller's fulfillment center; and other types of product details. The product information may then be utilized to generate product listings in a product catalog. The product listings are made available through the online e-commerce marketplace for searching and browsing by customers wishing to purchase the corresponding products from the sellers.
Product information provided by online e-commerce marketplaces is typically presented in a human readable language that is appropriate for the locale of the marketplace. For example, an online e-commerce marketplace in the United States may provide product information in English, while an online e-commerce marketplace in Spain may present product information in Spanish. Regardless of the language that an e-commerce marketplace is presented in, it is not uncommon for an e-commerce marketplace to receive search queries expressed in languages other than the primary language of the marketplace (referred to herein as “foreign languages”). For instance, United States based e-commerce marketplaces presented in English may receive queries expressed in Spanish or other non-English languages.
Search queries received at an online e-commerce marketplace that are expressed using a foreign language may be utilized to search for products in a standard fashion. Because such search queries are expressed in a language other than the primary language of the marketplace, it is likely that searches performed using such search queries will not return meaningful search results. This can be confusing and/or frustrating for a customer of the marketplace, and may lead the customer to shop at another online e-commerce marketplace.
It is with respect to these and other considerations that the disclosure made herein is presented.